Euro angst is tasty

[alfred russel]

It is still early though, so there is yet hope for change.

The clock is ticking. Mid term elections are less than 12 months away, and it looks like any big changes may be impossible after those. Plus, votes are going to get a lot tougher the closer we get to those elections.

[alfred russel]

Obama lied, Euros fried....   

[BuddhaRhubarb]

But buddha, he does have himself to blame in part.  When you run on a platform of "hope and change" you really do increase expectations that things will, well, change.

I guess he should have mentioned that he didn't have a magic wand that would just fix things without any muss or fuss. Hope btw is not actually doing  anything. If people had no hope in America they would have voted for Palin/McCain. Changing an entrenched corrupt system is obviously not easy. They barely got their completely gutted health care bill through.

America actually doesn't really want change or they would be letting his government do more than hand out money to billionaires at the expense of tax payers. That's what previous presidents have been doing since FDR at the very least.

[Barrister]

I guess he should have mentioned that he didn't have a magic wand that would just fix things without any muss or fuss.

Well, he should have done something during the campaign to dampen expectations that got wildly out of control.

[DontSayBanana]

Well, he should have done something during the campaign to dampen expectations that got wildly out of control.

Except that we would have been in a royal mess in terms of confidence in the government. The Bush admin screwed things up so badly (at least, that was the perception) that all Americans were going to accept was someone who would concentrate on fixing the damage done between 2000 and 2008.

[alfred russel]

I guess he should have mentioned that he didn't have a magic wand that would just fix things without any muss or fuss.

Well, he should have done something during the campaign to dampen expectations that got wildly out of control.

He didn't win by that much, and before the economy collapsed weeks before the election he was only even money to get elected (according to gambling odds).

[grumbler]

America actually doesn't really want change or they would be letting his government do more than hand out money to billionaires at the expense of tax payers. 

This is the kind of contention (contained in the Op_Ed in the OP as well) that mystifies me.  "America" does this.  "America" won't let something happen.

How is "America" or even "Americans" prevent something from happening, or let something happen like "letting his government do more?"  I don't see how "America" can even be an actor.

[Faeelin]

Well, he should have done something during the campaign to dampen expectations that got wildly out of control.

Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth. This was the moment—this was the time—when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves and our highest ideals. Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.

[garbon]

Why are we the last hope?

[BuddhaRhubarb]

I guess he should have mentioned that he didn't have a magic wand that would just fix things without any muss or fuss.

Well, he should have done something during the campaign to dampen expectations that got wildly out of control.

like expect people to not expect solutions to appear out of thin air?  yeah good luck with that.

Nobody in America it seems (the TV wouldn't lie to me would it?) wants to do anything to help the Obama government, they're all to scared by completely ridiculous fearmongering by the Republicans, and the media. Moronic tea parties, and blocking something as innocuous as letting poor people get some semblance of health care are somehow considered helping the economy?

It's interesting to see that the right in America is no smarter as opposition than they were as leaders, still paranoid beyond the pint of any sort of credibility and completely uninterested in any sort of bi-partisan way of working with the current admin, to at least try to affect some of this "change". Hope is easy to forget when change is slow to come.

[garbon]

like expect people to not expect solutions to appear out of thin air?  yeah good luck with that.

Nobody in America it seems (the TV wouldn't lie to me would it?) wants to do anything to help the Obama government, they're all to scared by completely ridiculous fearmongering by the Republicans, and the media. Moronic tea parties, and blocking something as innocuous as letting poor people get some semblance of health care are somehow considered helping the economy?

It's interesting to see that the right in America is no smarter as opposition than they were as leaders, still paranoid beyond the pint of any sort of credibility and completely uninterested in any sort of bi-partisan way of working with the current admin, to at least try to affect some of this "change". Hope is easy to forget when change is slow to come.

Too strong a toke, dear?

[DontSayBanana]

This is the kind of contention (contained in the Op_Ed in the OP as well) that mystifies me.  "America" does this.  "America" won't let something happen.

How is "America" or even "Americans" prevent something from happening, or let something happen like "letting his government do more?"  I don't see how "America" can even be an actor.

It seems the ROTW has an inflated sense of how active the average citizen is in the US political system.  Our ability to do much of anything past irate phone calls to the elected representatives' secretaries ends on Inauguration Day.

[Berkut]

I guess he should have mentioned that he didn't have a magic wand that would just fix things without any muss or fuss.

Well, he should have done something during the campaign to dampen expectations that got wildly out of control.

like expect people to not expect solutions to appear out of thin air?  yeah good luck with that.

Nobody in America it seems (the TV wouldn't lie to me would it?) wants to do anything to help the Obama government, they're all to scared by completely ridiculous fearmongering by the Republicans, and the media. Moronic tea parties, and blocking something as innocuous as letting poor people get some semblance of health care are somehow considered helping the economy?

Is that really how the Euro media is portraying this?

And you actually buy that explanation?

[Faeelin]

Why are we the last hope?

The mongrel races of Canada are of no help to anyone.

[alfred russel]

I don't see how "America" can even be an actor.

"America" can't be an actor, but Tom Cruise is American, and he is an actor.

"America" could be a collection of actors, but most movies would have to be about fat people.